Darkwing Duck was Harnell’s first job. Hired to play evil space alien Bleeb, he had to create an original character for the first time. © Disney.

This was all in addition to my session singing, which kept me very busy. One day, I got a call from a guy at Disney who told me about this ride, Splash Mountain, and said he needed to get voice matches from Song of the South and asked if I could do any of those voices.

NC: Ah yes, Song of the South. That was your very first professional singing gig, wasn't it?

JH: Look at you! Doing your research amid the nine million other things you do! So I learned to do the voices and auditioned. I was the only non-pro there auditioning and I got a lot of the voices on this ride. It was my first real animated job and I was very excited about it. A year later, they called [again about doing Roger Rabbit for Disney World]. Suddenly I'm working with these big voice-over people, had no idea who they were. None of them had any idea who I was either -- I think they thought I was on the road crew for Def Leppard or something.

NC: And where did you go from there? What was your first animation session?

JH: Well, there's a story. Let me preface it by saying, everyone has their own particular talents, their gifts, and I think that trusting in your gift is a really important part of this for me. My first show was a show called Darkwing Duck. I was hired to play an evil space alien named Bleeb. I got the script the night before and this was my first character where I wasn't imitating something else.

Ginny McSwain.

I stayed up all night coming up with voice ideas -- I came up with 60 voice ideas. I came into the session, met Ginny McSwain (a very fast-paced, A-to-B, special kind of redhead), and I go over and introduce myself and say, "Listen, I came up with some ideas for how I'm going to play Bleeb and I have them recorded here," and she responded with, "Sure, sure, OK, go ahead and pull 'em up." I put up the tape and she heard, "This is Jess Harnell and here are some ideas for Bleeb -- number 1." I say two lines in the first voice and she goes, "Oh, that's great, great, yeah, use that one." It was this epiphany moment for me in my first session when I realized maybe I'm over-thinking this a little bit.

Now when I walk into auditions, I trust in myself that I can show who these characters are and you find their voice. It's so important that they have a good description of the characters -- I love to see a picture of the character, and it helps if they have a voice prototype, like "we're looking for a mobster voice" and then I can throw up a few and create that for you.

NC: You've answered so much in these stories, and I'm just wondering, who are your voice-over heroes?

JH: When I was growing up doing impressions, I really had no awareness of, like, the cartoon all-stars, since my background was rock singer. My first animated series was Animaniacs (where I met you). I walked into my first session on that show and sat next to Tress MacNeille, Rob Paulsen and Frank Welker. It was almost a blessing that I didn't know who these people were because I didn't know enough to be intimidated. As I found out more about them, and who did what, I was consistently blown away. I would look at Rob -- he's just awesome -- or I'd miss my line after being so impressed with Tress and she would just go, "Get with it baby!" And Frank, of course! As I developed a knowledge of these guys, my heroes were really the people I first got to work with on that show.

NC: So, do you think there is a protocol that voice actors should follow when they go to a studio? I mean, I've gone to sessions before and you have people reading or doing other things when they're in front of a microphone so sensitive you could hear a fish fart.

JH: Absolutely. First of all, rule number one for me in voice acting has always been: It's not about doing funny voices; it's about creating characters. It's almost funny to me sometimes, because people will say something like, "Well, you guys aren't real actors, you're voice actors." Voice acting to me is as challenging or more challenging than on-camera acting because when you're doing on-camera, you get the benefit of a costume and of a set and the other actors who are interacting with you. In voice-over, we're wearing jeans and t-shirts and stuff like that and we're still having to be four different characters at the same time and not only sound different, but be different people.

People also say, "So you need to be able to do a million voices, right?" Actually, you have to do one really good one. The rest are extra, as long as you can bring one thing to the party that is uniquely you. But if someone can hire a "10" in talent and a "4" in fun, or they can hire an "8" in talent and a "10" in fun, they're going to go with the latter because they'll look forward to having you. The only time that backfires is if the fun guy is having a bad day and walks into a room full of people expecting the party guy to show up with his A game. That's why I say, when you go into a session -- hey, the stock market might be getting creamed, but I have to leave that at the door and give these people my best.